Another Year of Breaths

I'm not going to lie. Aging is not something I look forward to. I get nervous that "living the dream" will become more difficult if not obsolete. But sometimes life lessons come to us in the most obscure fashions. A couple days ago Clay and I had finished our last backpacking trip in Kahurangi National Park. After getting a ride out from a very isolated trail head we find ourselves on a main road which although not as isolated still seemed a bit starved for traffic. We got pretty lucky though. After only several minutes a car slowed down as it saw us. The passenger side window rolled down and an elderly lady well past Golden Age Pass status asked us where we were headed. I answered, "Nelson." "Your lucky, hop in." The driver shuffled to the back of the car to open the boot. After coercing my backpack into an already full boot, and Clay managing to put his pack on his lap, we hopped in. As we slowly pulled back onto the road, " The lady said, "We older hitchhikers have to help out younger hitchhikers." That is awesome. They had just spent the weekend in Nelson Lakes National Park at a boat regatta. Still living the dream. As we rode with them for the next hour they told us about their 14 grandchildren spread all over the world. They talked about all their travels throughout New Zealand. They laughed at each other and gave each other a hard time for confusing street names. It was obvious that they had enjoyed many years together and continued to enjoy each other's company. Living the dream. When we got to Nelson they insisted on showing us some of the sights around the city. Amazingly generous of them. When they did eventually drop us off they both got out of the car to wish us well. Clay had mentioned earlier it was my birthday. So as they pulled away the lady asked me, "Well how old will you be?" I said, "27." She responded, "Yes, yes that's a good age." I have a feeling she would have said that if i would have said 27, 47, or 87. We didn't even get their names. But their smiling faces and obvious enjoyment of life and one another will be something that I remember for quite some time. No doubt the definition of "the dream" is different for all of us, and it will change with time and circumstances. But that is probably a good thing.

Well here are some pics for the last couple weeks. Right now we are in Nelson and heading out on Saturday to spend our last two weeks on the north island.

We traded in our hiking boots for a sea kayak. We kayaked for three days in Abel Tasman National Park stopping to camp along the beach as we went.

Said sea kayak. Tide going out in Anchorage Bay.


After sea kayaking we camped a night in Moteuka. And we found this amazing pillow thing. It was in the campground barely 30' from our tent. It was about the coolest thing ever.Then we did our last backpacking trip on the south island in Kahurangi National Park. Tablelands in Kahurangi National Park. Balloon Hut, Kahurangi National Park. Kahurangi National ParkClay hoping that a little dog will score us some sympathy points.